Your daughter punishes her doll… Is this normal?

This is why your daughter punishes her dolls

Your daughter punishes her doll… Is this normal? It’s normal to ask yourself this question if you notice your little daughter doing it. For example, she imagines that her doll wet her clothes or broke something, so she reprimands it. But why does she do that?

Find out why your daughter is punishing her doll

Imitating adults

You’ll notice every now and then that your little daughter is treating her doll the way you treat her. She hugs it, combs its hair, gives it the bottle of milk, and helps it sleep. She also makes sure to change its clothes and to wash it sometimes as a bath.

So she imitates you when she punishes her doll too. This is because imitation is an experience all kids go through at a certain phase of their lives.

Expressing their feelings

In their first years, kids often express their feelings automatically, by laughing, crying, screaming…

But after they turn 3, they start discovering their ability to use a outlet for these feelings. This is why you find your daughter expressing feeling anxious or upset through her doll.

And this is how she punishes her doll for a reason she was punished for before. For example, she would tell it: “Didn’t I tell you not to touch the vase? I will punish you”.

Learning to distinguish what is allowed and what is not

When your daughter starts punishing her doll, this means she’s starting to recognize between right and wrong. This also indicates that she realizes that some actions are bad and shouldn’t be done.

In this case, punishment is a way she uses to express her understanding of the limits she’s not allowed to cross.

Punishing her doll also indicates that she’s starting to understand the meaning of punishment, and that it means she did something wrong.